Revamped: clearcubic.com back-end

It's been a while since I posted photos and that's because I have been revamping my web site's back-end. I'm happy to say that in terms of what people can see, it's close to 90% done. While the site still looks pretty much the same as before, how it operates in the background has been completely changed.

Before:

• Web Hosting: 1and1.com
• Language: PHP
• Database: MySQL
• Web Application Framework: None

After:

• Web Hosting: Google App Engine
• Language: Python
• Database: App Engine Datastore (non-relational)
• Web Application Framework: Django

Before this revamp, I did not know any of the technologies that I have switched to and that was the reason that the site hasn't been updated for close to 3 months. It took me about 4 non consecutive weeks (nights and weekends) to get the site looking like the original. Because it was almost like starting the site from scratch, I rethought certain ways to do things. To enhance performance, the website is now practically static html pages that are pregenerated by my new administration tools. Administration tools were dispersed throughout my site before but they have been separated from the main site into a centralized location (still a work in progress).

What prompted me to make such a drastic change? Two main reasons. One, I was thinking about the future. Two, I wanted to try out some of these new technologies. Didn't I say I love technology? I honestly do. =D

About the "thinking about the future" part. I was thinking what would happen to clearcubic.com once I'm gone from this world. By using a paid hosting company, if no one pays the hosting fee, this site would surely disappear from this world forever. The Google App Engine service I'm using now is currently free. While I can not be certain that it'll be free forever, I do think my site would have a much better chance to survive at Google.com than 1and1.com. And yes, the domain, "clearcubic.com", is also a paid service but once it dies, remember this free alternative address, "http://clearcubic.appspot.com".

David H. leaving on a jet plane

2010-07-06 marks the day that a friend, David H., is leaving NY and going to Singapore to study what he likes, Animation. Dave is quite a creative person and I think he'll definitely do well in this subject. I wish him the best and hope to see him again some day.

On another note, some other creative young people in the NY YAD made a farewell video for David. The video, from concept to finished product, only took no more than 3 days. I think these young people definitely deserved a big round of applause. Here's the video:

Accident @ blogger.com

Notice anything different about the blog? I'm sure you can see the difference if this is not the first time you visit here.

I'm currently working on changing my site's back-end structure and had to do some adjustment to the blog. When I saw that blogger has a new design function, I played with it and saved the design by accident and that erased my previous custom code that made the blog look similar to clearcubic.com. Not willing to spend the time to put in the custom code again, I'll have to settle with this new look here. I think it looks ok anyway. :)

Oh, happy birthday to Cadi. She turned 1 today. ^_^

Grand Central, NYC

Han came by NY not too long ago.  After dinner at Aburiya Kinnosuke, we took a stroll at Grand Central before we go home.  Aburiya Kinnosuke has two (now three) sister restaurants.  One is the Yakitori Totto.  The food at Aburiya Kinnosuke is more like a fusion type between Japanese and American (based on what we ordered that day).  While itt was good and different (and also expensive), we still prefer Yakitori Totto.  I do recommend you to try it at least once though.

Because the table we got was small, so the food's original presentations were only SHOWN to us by the waiter and then he divided the food into portions.   As a result, no photos of the food.  I feel sad as the food presentations looked very nice.



You need to have a steady hand (this is really more suitable for the tripod) AND steady people to get non blurry photos. Joy and I failed to stay still for too long. Han's was not too bad though.






Love this one. Would have loved this even more if I got the letter "T" in "Tracks". Saw the couple and had to press the shutter immediately so there was no time to think.

Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park

Since we came back from Taiwan, we have not taken Cadi out to any trip. Since we know (more like a guess) Cadi misses going out so much, we decided to go on a day trip on an April weekend when the weather turned warmer.

With a baby, it's not that easy to go on a long trip so we wanted to look for a nearby place and the "Planting Fields Arboretum State History Park" turned up. A place found by my sister that's not too far from where we live. When I first hear the name, I was thinking of mountains and little streams mainly due to "state history park", not so (and I couldn't think of any mountains in LI either). Apparently, I have not gone on enough state parks that aren't mountains and streams. =D Well, check out the photos to get a partial sense of what this park is about. You won't know all as we did not explore all there is to explore in the park.




Joy being, well, joyful.


Cadi striking a weird pose and my sister hiding from camera.


Love this house's roof. Can't believe it's not flat. Wonder if anyone still does this. I'm not crazy about it's color though. :)




A cactus flower from a greenhouse in the park. Disclaimer: We did not harm the plant in anyway. This is picked up from the ground...I think.




Joy being joyful again.

While in the garden, we overheard someone saying there's a beach nearby. Since the park closes early, of course we wanted to check out the beach. We didn't have the exact location but with GPS, we managed to find a park with a bit of a "beach". Though we are not sure if this is the place that we overheard from.








I shot quite a few of these people playing, posting two here. Don't know why but I love this series.


The park has a playground. The playground has a swing. The swing has Cadi.

2010 @ Taiwan

Just got back from Taiwan a couple weeks ago. Taiwan was, as usual, great. Had a fair amount of delicious food. Notice it was a "fair amount" and not a "large amount" due to weather starting to become hot and I lose appetite when it's hot. :(

What's different about this trip from the past is that we brought an 8 months old baby with us. We've always dreaded hearing the baby cry when we go back to Taiwan and coming back, this time, we were the trouble maker. Fortunately for us, Cadi behaved much better on the plane than we expected her to.

For the first couple of days, we stayed at Joy's parents' home in Taipei. For some unknown reason, screaming was pretty much all that Cadi did when we first stepped into the house. It wasn't until after a couple of hours that we took Cadi out for a walk did she start to calm down.

Since we did not have a stroller with us, I was carrying Cadi with a baby carrier and as a result, I had a difficult time taking photos for the first couple of days.


A friend taking us out for lunch in a discontinued oldie mini cooper. Only snapped a photo of the interior, the car looks super cute from the outside but I don't have a photo of that to show.


Went south to Pingtung after 3 days in Taipei. When we arrived Kaohsiung to see Joy's friend, this is only the 2nd stranger in the first week of us in Taiwan that could hold Cadi without her crying.


We were planning to go to another night market but after we finished parking, we realized that it wasn't open. So, we went to Liouhe night market...once again. A tourists' night market.


Pingtung was super hot the first we got there. All of us had trouble sleeping the first night as there is no AC. But Cadi did get to show her chubby legs because of the hot weather.


A friend's son. Just 2 to 3 months younger than Cadi but Cadi looks gigantic compared to him here.


Like her daddy, Cadi attracts mosquitos. The red dots are all mosquito bites. There were a total of 10 on her leg alone and more on her arm (it was all on her right side which was kind of funny.)


We saw these huge fish eyes for sale when we went to YiLan. The eyes are interesting but so is the sign here. Not only do you have to understand the Chinese letters but you also have to understand what "No body" here means. Yes, "no body" here literally means no body (only eyes) but it's also a famous song from the Korean group "Wonder Girls". Check out the song at No Body MTV. Before seeing this sign, I had no idea that "No Body" is a song. While talking to a friend, he suggested that the catchy phrase in the song is "No body but you" and if you pronounce "but you" in Taiwanese, it sounds exactly like "eyes". So I think this sign was really very intelligently put together.


Just because it contains my last name's character. :)


This is not pollution. This is dust storm. First time I've witnessed one.


One of the vendors we tried at Luodong night market in YiLan. This night market is so much better than the Liouhe one.


Visited Yangmingshan National Park and went to the calla field. Wasn't as large as I expected but it might be that some flowers had already been picked.


Another part of Yangmingshan Park. Forgot the name but I since we got there late, we did not have much time to explore this place. I would like to come here again next time.


What they have on each of their hand is a grilled skewer of chicken butts. You don't see that in the US.


This is near the end of Taiwan trip. By that time, Cadi has already met a LOT of people. Thought Cadi would have gotten used to being held by strangers. Apparently not.


The gondola at Maokong has been closed for some time already but it was reopened for testing the 2nd week we were in Taiwan. Joy's mom told us not to go on the gondola but we went anyway. Glad that we did. It was the longest gondola ride that I've been on. Close to 30 minutes each way if don't get off the ride midway at two other locations.


Joy's cousin, Jay, or Cadi's uncle was sort of on vacation and was able to take us out for two days. As a result, Cadi has gotten to know him quite well. Because Cadi was willing to be carried by her uncle, I was much more relaxed on the 2nd week due to losing some significant "weight", 20 pounds to be exact. :)

Cadi - 8 months

Cadi is now 8 months old. She's taller, has much more energy (staying awake longer, not good for her parents) and is also screaming louder if she's not happy (also not that pleasant for her parents).

First up, Cadi is hungry (again) and is looking for food.

1. Red leather shoes look tasty but wearing and chewing them at the same time is tiring.
2. What to do? Take it off, of course.
3. Now CHEWWWWWW~~~~


And for dessert, a furry ball.


And cadi's most recent signature stare. 8 months vs. 2 months vs. 1 month.